Kolkata 10 August : Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday afternoon, arrested two ex-officials of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in connection with the multi-crore teacher recruitment irregularities fraud.The two people arrested were Santi Prasad Sinha, the former chairperson of WBSSC’s special committee for screening, which is believed to be the center of frauds that involve multiple crores, and the former secretary of WBSSC, Ashok Saha.
Both were identified in the FIR that was filed by CBI prior to the start of their investigation in the matter.
The arrests are the first of CBI in the WBSSC scam.
The investigators of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), conducting an investigation into the money trail angle in the fraud, nabbed the former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee as well as his close aid Arpita Mukherjee in this connection.Both Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee are in custody in a judicial setting.
CBI sources claimed they believe Sinha as well as Saha have made deliberate efforts to conceal facts and deceive investigators throughout.”Both will be arraigned before an indictment on Thursday and we’ll request custody of them to conduct further investigations.We will be able to question further to get an understanding of the underlying motives of the entire fraud and specifically, how the screening committee became the focal point in the fraud,” a CBI official said.
A Calcutta High Court-created judicial committee , under the direction of Justice Ranjit Kumar Bag (retired) was the first body to have the WBSSC special screening committee and Sinha accountable for playing a major role in the process of recruitment irregularities.
The Bag committee also ruled that members of the committee responsible for screening were accountable for stealing the merit list.In reality the report of the judicial panel was the main reason that prompted the Calcutta High court’s one-judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay, to request an inquiry through the CBI in the case.
In a statement, the Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said that what was been retrieved was a tiny percent of the scam’s money involved.”As days go by more powerful figures of the ruling party as well as their accomplices in criminality will be detained by sleuths from the central agency and even more cash will be found,” he said.
The Trinamool Congress leaders remained tight-lipped about the issue until the time that this report was submitted.
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